WINNIPEG - Winnipeg evened their record at 3-3 with a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night. David Gustafsson, Mason Appleton, Kyle Connor and Morgan Barron scored for the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck was brilliant for a second consecutive start with 18 stops as Winnipeg beat St. Louis at Canada Life Centre for the fourth straight time and are 5-0-2 in their last seven at home vs. the Blues. Mason Appleton said the win was dedicated to Judy Bowness.
LOCKING THINGS DOWN
After giving up four or more goals in their first four games of the season, Winnipeg has tightened up defensively allowing four goals in their last two contests. The Jets only surrendered 20 shots against a talented Blues team that was coming off a huge win over Pittsburgh on the weekend.
“I thought we did a good job managing the game. The first period they had some rushes but after that once we got the lead in the second, I thought we played a pretty efficient game of hockey,” said Mason Appleton.
“That’s the Central. It’s 2-1 games, it’s 3-2 games and you have to find ways to hold those leads and win those games and we did that tonight.”
BIG GOAL FOR GUS
David Gustafsson opened the scoring for the Jets tonight at the 2:55 mark of the second period with his second career goal. Gustafsson took a fantastic pass from Cole Perfetti and one timed it past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. The Swedish forward’s first NHL goal came on November 27, 2019, in San Jose.
"It's a really nice pass. Perfetti is a skilled player, he can make those passes," said Gustafsson when asked about the assist from Perfetti.
"So, whenever you are on the ice with him, leave your stick down and you will get good scoring chances."
ANOTHER POWER PLAY GOAL AGAINST
Winnipeg had been dominating the second period with a two-goal lead before they took back-to-back penalties from Josh Morrissey and Dylan Samberg respectively. The Jets killed off the Morrissey minor but with Samberg in the box for high sticking, Pavel Buchnevich redirected a Brayden Schenn pass behind Connor Hellebuyck. It was the seventh goal surrendered by the Jets penalty kill unit and they have allowed at least one in every game this season. The PK came up huge in the third period with St. Louis trying to pull within one as Winnipeg was leading 3-1 at the time of Brendan Dillon’s penalty.
